Cop: Pair claimed Facebook threats against police were joke

Two men accused of using Facebook to threaten police claimed they were joking, a Warren police officer testified Tuesday.

Sgt. John Barnes, a former detective, said he asked Richard William Walker shortly after his arrest in January whether he was a terrorist.

“He said he wasn’t posting those (comments) because he was a terrorist (instead) they were just screwing around,” Barnes said during a hearing in 37th District Court for Walker, 18, and Brandon Michael Davis, 20, both of Warren.

The 18-year police veteran said he separately asked Davis to identify the terrorist cell he belonged to.

“He seemed to be a little surprised by that” question, said Barnes, who formerly headed the investigation into remarks attributed by law enforcers to the Warren roommates on the social media site. “He said he was no terrorist either. He said they weren’t going to kill anybody.

“His words, I think, were they ‘were just screwing around.’ ”

Barnes said he kept Davis in handcuffs during his initial, brief interrogation inside the Warren Police Department lockup because he appeared angry and agitated.

“He still had the look of the devil in his eyes, and I wasn’t going to take his handcuffs off,” the sergeant added during testimony before Judge Matthew Sabaugh.

Walker and Davis face charges of false report or threat of terrorism and using a computer to commit a felony, offenses punishable by up to 20 years in prison. They also are accused of possessing an illegal shotgun and resisting and obstructing police.

Facebook posts attributed by Warren police and the Macomb County Prosecutors’ Office to Davis include: “We really need more cop killers like for real f*** the cops f*** the court system” and “I don’t want to grow up, I’m a cop killer.”

Officials alleged Walker posted: “Wish people would kill more cops we need to have more cops getting killed we need tru (sic) soldiers” and “Take a man’s car turn him into a cop killer.”

Warren police had impounded a vehicle driven by Walker a few days earlier.

Photos from the respective pages on Facebook show two men brandishing what appear to be assault rifles and wearing ski masks and gas masks. In a separate photo, a shirtless man believed to be Walker flexes his left arm with the words “cop killer” on his left arm.

Police were alerted to the online remarks by an anonymous tipster on Jan. 15, officials said. After obtaining arrest warrants for the two men, Warren police raided Walker’s home on Ford Avenue, near Van Dyke and Nine Mile Road, three days later. Police arrested him shortly before the raid when he was spotted riding a bicycle. Davis was found hiding in the attic.

Inside the home, officials confiscated four rifles including two semiautomatic assault-style weapons; a shotgun; a semiautomatic pistol; approximately 200 rounds of ammunition; and a crossbow.

During the hearing Tuesday in district court to determine whether Walker and Davis should be bound over for trial in Macomb County Circuit Court, their attorneys argued that prosecutors haven’t proved that both men posted the remarks nor that the comments amounted to threatening violence against police in Warren or elsewhere.

“Where’s the threat?” said defense lawyer Brian Selburn, representing Walker. “In no way is this a threat.

“It’s not a call to arms. It’s a wish.”

Assistant Prosecutor Derek Miller said Facebook pictures of the roommates brandishing high-powered weapons resembling the ones found in the house show they posed a danger to society.

“These threats to the public that were communicated are absolutely disgusting. They’re inciting others to commit violence,” said Miller, who pointed out that images of the suspects holdings the guns were found on Walker’s cellphone.

“Just because they claim they were joking around is absolutely no excuse. They had the ability to follow through on those threats, which was proven when the search warrant was conducted on Jan. 18,” the assistant prosecutor said.

In extensive questioning from the bench, Sabaugh seemed to indicate that the prosecution hadn’t shown how the pictures got onto Walker’s cellphone or where and when the photos were taken.

“I don’t know if it occurred in Warren or Alpena,” said the judge between lengthy, repetitive closing arguments by attorneys on both sides of the case.

Sabaugh postponed his decision on whether to order Walker and Davis to stand trial, to April 11.

Both suspects remain in the Macomb County Jail in lieu of $500,000 bond.